Reasons to Love youTube No.1 - Lightnin' Hopkins

Lightnin' Hopkins - Baby Please Don't Go

Wham Bam Sam playing the much covered Big Joe Williams classic. Lightnin' plays the guitar solo with the love and freedom that Jerry Lee sometimes plays a piano solo. It looks so effortless - amazing. The only negative thing I can think of is that his quiff wasn't as pomped as it sometimes was.

Lightnin' Hopkins - Mojo Hand 1962

I've seen five peice bands who couldn't boogie like this mutha.

Clip from The Blues According to lightnin' Hopkins

Has the blues ever been more powerful than Lightnin' and Howlin' Wolf. This five minute clip comes from the brilliant 1967 documentary dedicated to Lightnin' Hopkins. Check him out 30 seconds in, that quif I mentioned is just a comb away.

Rockin' Song of the Week No. 74 - Lightnin' Hopkins - They Wonder Who I Am

Lightnin' Hopkins - They Wonder Who I Am
Herald 449 (1954)

If you thought hard rockin’ blues starts and ends with John Lee Hooker I’ll assume you haven’t heard Lightnin’ Hopkins on Herald. He had more labels than a recycled can but it was at Herald where he was at his rawest, brilliant best. One of my favourite songs is his slow blues, California Showers, but that’s not what I’m on about here. I’m listening to They Wonder Who I Am, one of the hardest-assed blues songs ever.

In two mammoth sessions in Houston, Texas in April 1954, Sam Lightnin’ Hopkins recorded no less than 26 songs. Backing himself on guitar, he had Donald Cooks on bass and Ben turner on drums, and boy do they earn their dough. They must have been sweating like rapists by the time they finished They Wonder Who I Am, not mention Lightnin's Boogie or Hopkins' Sky Hop. They Wonder Who I Am is nuthin’ but a roadhouse stomp as Brother Flip says, absolutely tenacious with Lightnin’ playing the most ferocious guitar you’re likely to hear. It might always sound like it’s in tune, but it always sounds like the guy is in the mood to boogie. “Now somebody asked me, please tell me who you am, soon as they found out, this is ain’t nothin’ but blues singing Sam.” Now, that might not be the exact lyric, because Lightnin’ was renowned for being hard to understand. I remember the Blues According to Lightnin’ Hopkins documentary where they had to have subtitles for his talking. And then there’s Fishing Clothes, or Sufficient Clothes. Ah, what a legend.

Rock 'n' Roll Art No. 2

J.D.Sipe was born in 1951 in the small farming community of New London, Wisconsin but has lived most of his life in New Mexico. He is an award winning self-taught artist who specialises in painting blues singers and general musicians that he's a fan of. He paints on pine boards, and embellishes his paintings with bits of recycled aluminium can. See Lightnin' Hopkins' tie and handkerchief as an example.

Among our heroes to look out for, Snipes has painted Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Hank Williams, BB King and Stevie Ray Vaughan.


Away from art he is the bass player for the blues band the HooDoos, performing in saloons, dancehalls, honky-tonks, roadhouse and nightclubs throughout the Southwest. He has been a professional musician for more than thirty years, and has performed with such bluesmen as Homesick James, Joe Huston, Buddy Ace and Wild Child Butler. He loves to tell the story about the night that Steve Winwood sat in with his band at the Chicago Bar in Tucson.